Errors in published piece

[thewinedarksea]

Hi there. I don't want to come across as complaining, as I am hugely grateful for the unpaid work that the site editors do. But in a recent story submission, several errors have been introduced to my story that are not there in the file that I submitted. I submitted in plain text, so I don't think it is due to my file.

Any idea how this happened and what I can do to fix it and ensure it doesn't happen in the future?

I would just submit and edit, but I can't be sure that it will work.

Looking for some advice! Thank you.

 

[lonigan]

Mistakes

All the mistakes in my published pieces were my own, usually caused by a jumping cursor when I deleted verbosity before submission. Probably should buy better computers.

 

[thewinedarksea]

Thanks for your input. I still have the unchanged .txt file I submitted, and it does not have the errors in it. They were introduced after submission, in my case.

 

[jaF0]

What KIND of errors? Typos? Or some kind of odd characters added? Did you submit the file as a whole, or did you paste it into the editor to view before sending?

 

[thewinedarksea]

I submitted the .txt file as a whole.

There are two main errors:

1. Some instances of dialogue in its own paragraph was included in the preceding paragraph. Basically, the line break (just a "return" in plain text files) was deleted. The gap also disappeared between the dialogue and the preceding period.

2. More obviously intentional change: the in-text title has been changed and bolded. Originally, it said "Dani in the City Pt. 03: Over the Edge" — now it just says Over the Edge.

I wouldn't mind about the latter, but the other two stories in the series, that have been submitted with the same in-text title, have not been bolded and changed. So it's a head-scratcher.


Illustrating 1.

Here's a copy paste from my .txt file:

“It’s three grand for a reason.” I figure now would be the wrong time to mention I’m getting paid closer to four thousand. “Rav’s not like the other clients.”

“Oh so I can’t handle it? Like, Dani’s such a professional and what am I? Like some stupid little girl?”

And here's the version appearing on the site:

"It's three grand for a reason." I figure now would be the wrong time to mention I'm getting paid closer to four thousand. "Rav's not like the other clients."

"Oh so I can't handle it? Like, Dani's such a professional and what am I? Like some stupid little girl?"

---

It could be that I'm doing something wrong, but I just can't figure it out. Anyway, I'm not looking to blame anyone, just seeing what I can do to make it easiest for the site's editors to put stories up in their intended form.

Cheers all!

 

[jaF0]

That could be the system parsing a .txt file and messing up paragraphs and line breaks.

Pasting into the form should eliminate those kinds of things.

 

[thewinedarksea]

Ok I will try that next time I guess. The bolded title seems more odd, however. That looks like an editorial intervention.

 

[jaF0]

It all just looks like parsing errors to me. I really don't know how it got through since I've had stories rejected to be reworked for the very reason of dialog not being in separate paragraphs.

 

[LWulf]

Sometimes, when you ask an editor to review your story, some of the formatting of the editing process will transfer from copy to copy, especially if they are using a different version of Word (or whatever program(s) you/they use). I've taken a story, revised it about 300 times, asked two or three editors to review it, revealed the formatting and took out what didn't belong, took the final copy and put it onto word pad (thinking that would remove all formatting), and still had hidden formatting when it went to post.
Transcription errors simply happen, is the easiest way to explain it.

The only possibility of reducing transcription errors to nil, is to rewrite a completely new, virgin, version of the story. No copy/paste-ing.

As far as your title goes, you seriously want the title to appear three times? twice above the story and again, in the story? Your first two stories are inconsistent as far as what is shown. It's a simple fix to change it, just repost and mention it's a story edit and what you want changed in the dialog box. At least I think that's how you do it.

In the future, I'd post the title in the story, how you want it, and then, again, mention in the dialog box that you want the title to appear in the story exactly how it is posted in the file.

 

[jaF0]

took the final copy and put it onto word pad (thinking that would remove all formatting), and still had hidden formatting when it went to post.

WordPad still has gobbledygook.

Notepad doesn't.

 

[LWulf]

WordPad still has gobbledygook.

Notepad doesn't.

Yeah, notepad. that's what I meant. I pasted my story to notepad and the hidden formatting still posted.

 

[LWulf]

Yeah, notepad. that's what I meant. I pasted my story to notepad and the hidden formatting still posted.

Let me amend that, MOST of the hidden formatting went away, when I copy pasted the document to notepad, but not all.